


Restless Nights

by physicalmachinist



Category: Fence (Comics)
Genre: KataCox FTW, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 10:04:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17139749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/physicalmachinist/pseuds/physicalmachinist
Summary: All Seiji wanted was to go to bed early, but of course, Nicholas had to get in the way.





	Restless Nights

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Christmas @Nerdyandexhausted! I hope you enjoy this fic <3

Most nights, I try not to pay any mind to Nicholas, despite his efforts to form some kind of relationship with me. He doesn’t understand that I rather be by myself most of the time. It’s what I know best, anyway.

My mind’s not allowing me to fall asleep tonight, despite my valerian tea and the white noise playing in my headphones. It often takes quite a while for me to go to sleep, so I go to bed long before curfew, and long before the usual Nicholas barges in, waking me up from my sleep. He needs to not do that tonight since we have a meet tomorrow. We’ve been getting by with the few wins we have so far this season, but we still need to keep focus. Each match counts, and I won’t let anyone, including him, interfere with our progress.

Of course, through the white noise I hear the door slam against the wall. I shift my right headphone off my ear as Nicholas turns on the light, causing me to squint.

“Can you ever enter the room without disturbing me and the whole floor?” I sit up to see Nicholas, sporting a blackened eye, a busted lip, and blood coating his mouth and chin.

“We’re not doing this tonight, Seiji.” He closes and locks the door. He grabs one of my hand towels on the way to the bathroom and closes the door behind him. What did he get himself into this time? Well, whatever it was, it looks like he lost.

I lie back down in my bed and close my eyes despite the harsh light in the room. If I was barely tired before, I might as well have taken a shot of espresso now. The water in the bathroom runs continuously as I toss and turn, trying to find an unreachable position of comfort.I wonder what happened to– no. I’m not letting curiosity get the better of me. _I have a meet tomorrow_ , I remind myself. _I need my sleep._ _We have a meet…_

Before I could stop myself, I knock on the bathroom door.

“That’s my towel, you know.”

“You don’t need it.” Nicholas’s tone is morose instead of teasing, like I expected.

“I do. I also need to sleep, but you woke me up, and you’re making all this noise.”

The door cracks open. “If you wanted to know what happened, all you have to do is ask.”

“That’s a bold assumption. I never said I cared for what happened.”

“You’re picking a fight with me over a stupid towel, even though I ‘disturbed’ your sleep on the night before a meet. If you didn’t care, you would have just gone back to bed like you usually do.”

I rack my brain for something to reply, but I’m at a loss for words.

“Okay, I’m curious, but don’t flatter yourself.”

“I just wanted to hear you say it.” Nicholas turns to face the mirror to continue tending to his face.

He did a shoddy job at wiping the blood off his mouth and chin. And he’s not even icing his eye.

“You’re running all of this water and not even using it efficiently.”

I reach over him and switch off the tap. I leave the bathroom to look in our mini-freezer for anything that could be used as an ice pack. The only things in the freezer are my ice cream and Nicholas’s waffles.

I return to the bathroom with the packaged waffles.

“Put this on your eye and give me the towel.” Nicholas hands to me the damp towel, reddened with his blood. As Nicholas applies the waffles to his eye, I wipe the remainder of the blood off his face.

“You don’t have to mom me, Seiji.” I glare at him.

“You obviously don’t know how to take care of yourself,” I retort.

“I take care of myself just fine.”

“Yeah, your face definitely shows that. You’re always getting yourself into something.”

“Look, I was just defending myself. Some guy had something to say about my home life…” Nicholas hesitates and takes the waffles down from his eye. He looks down momentarily, then rolls his eyes upwards- oh no. Please no.

“I’m sorry.” Nicholas fans his eyes in an attempt to contain the tears forming in his eyes.

I look anywhere that’s not at Nicholas. I’ve usually react to someone getting emotional by leaving the room, but I got myself into this situation. I can’t just stand here and watch him cry, though.

I reach my arm out and place my hand on his shoulder. He jumps slightly under my touch but seems to accept it. I then go in for a hug, which he reciprocates, and–

Goosebumps radiate throughout my body as he squeezes tighter. A couple of muffled sobs leave his mouth and enter my shoulder. He wipes his tears from his cheeks but holds onto our hug. After about a minute passes, he’s the first to let go. I feel rather disappointed in the absence of his body on mine.

“I needed that.” Nicholas shyly smiles at me. My eyes start to water, but I’ll be damned if I cry in front of Nicholas, or even worse, because of him.

“Wow, Seiji has a soft spot? I have to tell everyone.”

“You had to ruin the moment, didn’t you? Besides, no one will believe you.”

The scowl on Nicholas’s face easily puts a smile on mine. I quickly turn to rinse my towel.

“I tried to control myself this time, since this school’s like a new beginning or whatever,” Nicholas begins. “But the guy started asking questions about my financial situation. Questions he already seemed to have answers to. I could tell he was just picking at me, and usually jokes about my situation don’t affect me anymore, but for some reason these boiled my blood. I asked to be born into my situation just about as much as he asked to be born into his. Then he said was, ‘How could this happen? Single parent income? Let me guess, a deadbeat father and a crackhead mother?’ I went blind, and I threw the first punch. As you probably noticed, the guy put up a decent fight.”

I shake my head.

“I’m always shocked at the immaturity of some of the guys here. I’m glad you defended yourself.”

“Really? I thought you would think I was immature myself.”

“It could have been handled better, but maybe he knows his place now.”

“Have you ever been in a fight before? I mean besides the one with me, of course.”

“It’s getting late, and we really have to rest.” I start to leave the room when Nicholas grabs my arm.

“You’ve totally been in a fight before! And I think I know who you fought!”

“You don’t know anything. Go to bed.” I exit the bathroom and get into my bed, facing away from the center of the room. The light goes out our room, but I never hear Nicholas get inside of his bed.

“Seiji.” I sigh and turn over to answer to him, only to see him five inches from me.

“What?”

“Can I... Actually, it’s dumb, never mind.”

Suit yourself. I turn back around in my bed and close my eyes. There’s a moment of silence and calm at first, then I feel my bed dipping under the weight of this moron. I don’t have the will to protest, nor do I really want to?

“Is this what you wanted to ask about?” I whisper

“I just wanted to thank you for helping me.” Nicholas hugs me and pecks my cheek.

He then returns to his bed, and I hate feeling his absence.


End file.
